Pakistan Halts NATO Supplies (Vid 1) & Pakistani militants attack NATO supply trucks (Vid 2)
NTDTV | October 01, 2010 - Tensions are mounting on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. An important route that NATO forces take to get supplies to Afghanistan is cut off... after a NATO airstrike left three soldiers dead.
Trouble on the border. A vital supply route through Pakistan for NATO forces in Afghanistan is blocked after Pakistani authorities say a cross-border NATO airstrike killed three Pakistani soldiers.
The anger is felt on the ground.
[Fazal Khan, Driver]:
"The government should stop all these supplies; it should stop the supplies for two, three months, so that they (NATO forces) feel the pinch and they stop the massacre of Muslims."
Trucks and fuel tankers for foreign forces in Afghanistan were stopped at the border post in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar, hours after the raid, the fourth reported by Pakistani authorities in recent days.
[Abdul Basit, Spokesman, Pakistan's Foreign Office]:
"We were not aware of any terror plots as reported by international media and nor were we given any intelligence on this effect. But let me reiterate that Pakistan is committed not to allow its territory for terrorist actions anywhere in the world, and Pakistan is doing its utmost to ensure this."
Pakistan is a crucial ally for the United States in its efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, but analysts say border incursions and disruptions in NATO supplies underline growing tensions in the relationship.
State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley.
[PJ Crowley, Spokesman, U.S. State Department]:
"We are talking with the government of Pakistan, we take seriously our partnership, there has been an incident along the Afghan Pakistan border, we take seriously our responsibilities, as a partner and there is a review ongoing."
Washington has stepped up missile strikes by unmanned drone planes in Pakistan's northwest, carrying out 21 in September, the highest for a month since it began such attacks in 2008.
TradeTheTrend | October 01, 2010 - "Bloomberg reports that Pakistani militants attacked NATO supply trucks bound for Afghanistan after blocking access through Pakistan into the country because of a NATO aircraft strike that killed three Pakistani soldiers.
According to a police officer in the area, insurgents struck 40 trucks, destroying 27 of them. Police have detained some suspects.
Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, said NATO must apologize because, if it doesn't, the government has "other options."
The U.S. military's Transportation Command said that half of all war supplies to Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Supplies are now piling up on the border due to the blockade and around 400 trucks are standing by for the border to reopen."
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